Introduction: When I was approached to review Swords of the Six I had mixed feelings about what to expect. However the fact that the picture on the cover was very intriguing and beautifully done and it had a dragon convinced me to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised with both the plot and the wonderful writing that I encountered when reading this book.

Overview: Over a century ago the great dragon prophet was betrayed by his most loyal and trusted group of warriors, known as The Six. They shed the blood of an innocent and the dragon prophet vowed to have justice sought for this evil deed.

It's been over 1000 years and the dragon prophet is setting into motion his plan for justice. He has chosen six new warriors, warriors that are of both human and dragons blood. They are his daughters and they are the ones that are to go into the world and seek justice for his betrayal.

All six of these daughters of the dragon are wielders of ancient rusty swords that were once held by the Six. They must go into the world and complete the quests that are given to them.

What follows is a story of love, betrayal, and of the ultimate sacrifice.

Format: Swords of The Six is the first in a proposed series of books following the tales of the Swords of the Dragon. It is a fantasy that stands at 304 pages in length.

Analysis: I was very surprised by my encounter with Swords of the Six. I have to admit that after I found out that it was a partially religious fantasy that I was unsure of what to encounter. Would this book be preachy? Would it have major religious undertones? Well the answers to both of those is no and really if it hadn't been mentioned before that it was a religious fantasy I probably wouldn't have thought twice about that.

With that said, Scott Appleton's writing is beautiful. From the prologue of the book I was hooked on his writing. There was something almost magical about this book. There is a lot of talent in Appleton and it really shows through in here. Every event in the book seemed to flow and despite the bit of a lag occasionally in the book, everything else was just so richly described that it grabs the readers attention.

While reading this, I kept thinking of the Narnia series. This book is very similar in set up to that series. It's dealing with a battle of good vs. evil. There's a mysterious white dragon who magically helps and dispenses advice when it's needed. While it does remind me of Narnia it also has it's own qualities that make it, it's own.

There are a few times where the story seemed to drag. This didn't happen often but there were a few times I found my mind wandering. This particularly happened towards the end. It almost felt as though this book could have been about 20 pages less and it would have been the perfect book, in that it held my attention and was entertaining.

In the end, this book is a very thought provoking book. Although in a way it was a bit predictable I found that Scott Appleton's talent overshadowed any of the predictability that was there. This was a perfect set up to a great series and I really look forward to seeing Appleton's talent grow and mature.

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comments:

Anonymous
said...

I read this book and purchased a signed copy from the author. It's fantastic, my absolute favorite fantasy novel and I hear his second one is far better!Best fantasy book ever and great writing.Wonderful review.